Washington, DC – In what is still a rare public criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu, United States President Joe Biden has said that the Israeli prime minister is not doing enough to finalise a Gaza ceasefire deal.
Biden told reporters outside the White House on Monday that the US is “very close” to presenting a final proposal that would lead to the release of Israeli captives in Gaza.
Asked why he thinks this push would succeed when other attempts to bring about a ceasefire in Gaza have failed, Biden said: “Hope springs eternal.”
The US president then answered with a simple “no” when a reporter asked him whether Netanyahu is doing enough to secure a ceasefire agreement with Hamas.
Despite the Biden administration attempting to put some distance between itself and Netanyahu over the past few months, amid the unpopularity of Israel’s war on Gaza among Democrat supporters in particular, the criticism is one of the most overt made by the US president – even if it was brief and apparently off the cuff.
Biden met with the US team negotiating the captive release deal after he made his comments on Monday, and received an update on the status of the discussions, the White House said.
The renewed US effort to reach a ceasefire comes two days after six Israeli captives – including one American citizen – were found dead in Gaza.
The discovery has fuelled mass protests and strikes across Israel demanding a deal to free the nearly 100 Israelis who remain held by Palestinian groups in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Israel has continued its brutal blockade and relentless bombardment of Gaza, which has killed more than 40,700 Palestinians.
The US is Israel’s main weapons supplier and diplomatic ally. Since the start of the war in October, Washington has vetoed three United Nations Security Council proposals that would have called for a ceasefire in Gaza. It abstained on another vote in March demanding an immediate ceasefire.
Biden’s assertion about Netanyahu on Monday appears to contradict statements by his aides, who have blamed Hamas solely for the failure to reach a deal.
Last month, the US said it put forward a “bridging proposal” to finalise the agreement based on a proposal that Biden had presented in May.
Ceasefire talks
The initial US-backed plan would see a multiphased effort to end the war, starting with a six-week pause in fighting that would enable the release of some Israeli captives held in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
In the second phase, there would be a permanent end to the fighting and the release of all remaining Israeli captives. The final part of the agreement would include the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, which has been devastated by the Israeli war.
On August 19, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Netanyahu had “accepted” the US bridging proposal and Hamas must do the same – an assertion echoed by other US officials.
Still, Netanyahu has insisted that Israel must hold on to the Philadelphi Corridor – the Palestinian side of the border between Gaza and Egypt.
There have also been US and Israeli media reports that the Israeli government is looking to maintain a presence in central Gaza to restrict the movement of displaced Palestinians to their home in the north of the territory.
Netanyahu has also repeatedly insisted that he would not agree to any deal that would see a permanent end to the war without a “total victory” over Hamas.
Several rounds of indirect talks have been held in Egypt and Qatar in recent months.
But Hamas and other Palestinian groups say any deal must include a permanent end to the war and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told the Reuters news agency later on Monday that Biden’s comments are an acknowledgement that Israel is undermining ceasefire efforts.
In the US, the killing of an American citizen among the six captives on Saturday has fuelled calls for a ceasefire by some Democrats.
Republicans, however, have pointed the finger at Biden and his Vice President Kamala Harris – who is the Democratic nominee for the presidential election in November.
“We grieve the senseless death of the Israeli Hostages, horrifically including a wonderful American Citizen, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, murdered by Hamas due to a complete lack of American Strength and Leadership,” Republican candidate Donald Trump wrote in a social media post on Sunday.
“Make no mistake – This happened because Comrade Kamala Harris and Crooked Joe Biden are poor Leaders.”
Harris’s position
Harris had pledged to continue to arm Israel despite the growing atrocities and accusations of genocide in Gaza.
The US vice president released a strongly-worded statement on Saturday condemning Hamas as “evil” and saying that the group “cannot control Gaza”.
Harris did not mention the ceasefire deal in her remarks.
The Uncommitted National Movement within the Democratic Party system, which has been pushing Harris to call for an arms embargo against Israel, voiced disappointment in the vice president’s comments.
“We must not forget the 109 hostages still held in Gaza, each a universe unto themselves, and the over 16,000 Palestinian children killed in a genocide fueled by American weapons – part of the largest Palestinian civilian death toll since Israel’s founding in 1948,” the group’s co-founder Layla Elabed said in a statement on Sunday.
“In the last 24 hours, 47 Palestinians were killed by Israel, and 6 Israeli hostages were found dead, yet only one of these tragedies is dominating the headlines.”
While the death of Goldberg-Polin has dominated headlines in the US, he is not the first American citizen to be killed in the region this year.
Two American teenagers have been killed by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank this year, according to their families.
Israel also killed two US citizens in 2022: elderly Palestinian American Omar Assad and Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.
On Monday, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met with the families of US citizens held captives in Gaza.
“Sullivan discussed the ongoing diplomatic push across the highest levels of the US government to drive towards a deal that secures the release of the remaining hostages,” the White House said in a statement after the meeting.
“He emphasized President Biden’s and his Administration’s deep commitment to bring the families’ loved ones home as soon as possible.”
